This week in Tampa: Jimmy Buffett, Lady Gaga, Iron Maiden and more

Is it too early to call this the live music weekend of the year in Tampa Bay?

Look at the facts. The two most anticipated shows of 2011, Lady Gaga and Iron Maiden, are being held back to back at the St. Pete Times Forum on Saturday and Sunday. Jimmy Buffett makes his return to the stage Saturday at the 1-800-Ask-Gary Amphitheatre. The Beach Boys are at Ruth Eckerd Hall. One of the country's hottest hardcore bands, Ocala's own A Day To Remember, plays a sold-out show Monday at Jannus Live. Ybor City's Amphitheatre reopens for the dance-music masses. One of the biggest Christian music festivals in the country, Acquire the Fire, is going on in Lakeland. It's Record Store Day on Saturday, so nearly every local record store will have special merch, live music and special events. And New World Brewery will celebrate its 16th birthday with several great local bands.

And oh yeah: YANNI IS IN TOWN.

So you'll excuse us if we freak out just a little bit. Good thing Carole Liparoto is here to walk us through these shows and more, including Coheed and Cambria, Drowning Pool, Dr. Dog, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Meow Meow, Chicago, Warrant and much, much more. Get the details after the jump...

Jimmy BuffettSATURDAY 8 p.m. 1-800-Ask-Gary Amphitheatre, 4802 U.S. 301 N, Tampa. $36-$136. (813) 740-2446.On Saturday all Parrotheads will be trained on Jimmy Buffett. It’s his first concert since the 64-year-old was hospitalized after falling off the stage in Australia in January. (As far as we know, no one claimed there was a woman to blame —it was his own damn fault.) Will the laid-back master of Margaritaville be back to his old self? Somehow we don’t think it’ll matter to his Florida fans, who turn out en masse whenever he performs at the Amp. Just to be on the safe side, though, don’t expect any stage dives during Cheeseburger in Paradise.

A Day to Remember With Bring Me the Horizon, We Came As Romans, Pierce the Veil MONDAY 6 p.m. Jannus Live, 16 Second St. N., St. Petersburg. Sold Out. (727) 565-0551. Not since Needles the horse won the Kentucky Derby in 1956 has quiet Ocala, Fla. produced such an underdog story. The Marion County boys of A Day to Remember, who play an unorthodox combo of pop-punk and metalcore, have been selling out shows across the country, including this date Friday at Jannus Live. (If you remember, not even 50 Cent sold out Jannus last summer.) The band was pegged as one of nine “Artists to Watch in 2011” by MTV, scored the current cover of Alternative Press, and will headline the Vans Warped Tour this summer. If you missed out on tickets, catch the group at an appearance at the Vans Store in Tyrone Square Mall early Monday.

Drowning PoolWith Pop Evil, Trust Co., Static Cycle FRIDAY 7 p.m. State Theatre, 687 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. $19. (727) 895-3045. It’s fitting that a band best known for creating pitiless, contact-sport anthems could overcome some huge career blows. In 2002, Drowning Pool’s lead singer Dave Williams was found dead on the band’s tour bus during Ozzfest. In 2008, the group’s music was allegedly being used by the U.S. military to bother captured prisoners. In 2011, Tucson shooter Jared Loughner listed the Drowning Pool hit Bodies as one of his favorite songs. Yet the Dallas band has pressed on, doing what it does best — banging out unmerciful tunes about scars and stitches that go perfectly with WWE programming.

Coheed and Cambria FRIDAY 7 p.m. Jannus Live, 16 Second St. N., St. Petersburg. $25 and up. (727) 565-0551. An epic adventure has played out over the course of Coheed and Cambria’s five sprawling progressive rock albums. It’s a comic book-like fantasy so imaginative, heroic, high-pitched and technically dizzying, that it could do both Stan Lee and Geddy Lee proud. At this rate, singer-guitarist and head Geek Claudio Sanchez, with his helium, “dude-lady” vocals and towering hair to match, appears poised to carry the torch for prog-fathers Rush, Queensryche or Dream Theather.

YanniMONDAY 7:30 p.m. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N W.C. MacInnes Place, Tampa. $39.50 and up. (813) 229-7827.Yiannis Hrysomallis (Yanni if you’re nasty) would prefer that you not call his inspiring, meditative brand of music “New Age.” The term just has too many unfair implications, he says. Like “you have to have incense and a couple of crystals to enjoy it.” Behind the PBS specials and Olympic Game pump-ups is a man who just wants to perform meaningful music for his devoted fans. Monday, he’ll play songs from an expansive catalogue, including material from latest instrumental work Truth of Touch, alongside a 17-piece orchestra.

Dr. Dog With Floating Action SATURDAY 8 p.m. State Theatre, 687 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. $17-$19. (727) 895-3045.Dr. Dog, a brainy, slightly boozy Philly bar band with a passion for ’70s rock and good hoagie, has a ramshackle style of playing. They’re warm like Wilco or The Band with an experimental side reminiscent of the Flaming Lips and the college noisiness of Guided by Voices. My Morning Jacket’s Jim James handpicked Dr. Dog to open for them in 2004 and the group has been licking up praise ever since.

The Beach BoysFRIDAY 8 p.m. Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. $45-$78. (727) 791-7400. When it came time for the Beach Boys to announce their 50th anniversary tour, rumors swirled. Would Brian Wilson make this the year he rejoined America’s Band? Modern-day frontman Mike Love still teeters around the subject, but for now, we know it won’t happen Friday at Ruth Eckerd. He and Bruce Johnson will have to hold strong tackling the California teen dream — cruising around in cars, catching waves and chasing girls — with harmonic gusto and good vibrations.

Lady GagaWith Scissor SistersSATURDAY 8 p.m. St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa, $49.50. (813) 301-2500.Lady Gaga is a populist in Salvador Dali’s clothing, a smart but straightforward musician who just happens to wear meat to awards shows. Now, now, Little Monsters, I’m not bashing your glitter girl: Gaga’s pop is catchy, clever, disco-ball fun, and her Saturday show at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa will most certainly be a hellzapoppin’ spectacle of crooning, shenanigans and creative glue-gunning — and that’s just the rambunctious crowd. But let it be known that Gaga is neither daring nor excessively provocative in her primary occupation, her music nothing more than glam-slammy ’80s New Wave (Missing Persons, maybe, or that creepy dude who robo-covered Puttin’ on the Ritz), all made and sold with modern amenities and ’tude. It’s tough to become the queen of Astro Skate when you’re an avant-garde weirdo seven days a week. — Sean Daly

Iron MaidenWith Black TideSUNDAY 8 p.m. St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. $32.25-$55. (813) 301-2500.For you kids out there, Iron Maiden are one of the top British heavy metal acts of all time, and one of the most influential bands of the early ’80s. They released 31 albums, including The Number of the Beast, featuring hit Run To The Hills. But Iron Maiden wasn’t about hits, dude! They were about rocking the eff out, and making albums with skeletons on the cover! Irons up, everybody! — Jay Cridlin